3 ways to increase your customer value

When selling products online it is important that our customer value exceeds the cost to acquire a customer, you know that fun stuff we like to call “profit”.  The wider the gap between the customer value and the cost to acquire the more profit we make, right?
The majority of the time it is also easier and cheaper to get an existing customer to give you more money by buying other products than it is to acquire a new one.  I mean you have already got their trust enough to take the biggest leap of all and that is to open their wallet.
So let’s talk about a few ways we can increase that customer value so we can make more profit.
1.  One click upsells
This one may seem obvious to some as it it quite a common practice, but you would be surprised at how many companies don’t leverage this simple technique.
You have a prospective customer all lathered up in a buying frenzy, they have their credit card in hand and make a purchase with you.  Right after they hit the checkout button is the opportune time to ask for yet another sale.
This is where the magic of the one click upsell comes into play.  Immediately after they click the button to buy redirect them to a special offer page, a chance to buy a complimentary product at usually a higher price than the initial purchase at a special discount.
“Wait!  Customize Your Order By Picking Up Product X At A Special 66% Savings.  Available On This Page Only As A Thank You For Becoming A New Customer”
You proceed to sell them on why they need to add this product to their order, the benefits, and why you are offering the discount.
Now you can string together several of these upsells before hitting the final page.  You will find that, depending on what you offer and how, that 15%-70% of the new customers that see it buy it, bringing your customer value up on day one.
There are many ways to accomplish this and thanks to technology most shopping cart solutions have this functionality built right in.
2.  Special Offers
Offering additional discounts or credits on future purchases to new customers is a great way to get them to come back and buy from you again within the first couple weeks of initial purchase.
A little trick is once you have a new customer, give them a credit  (or coupon code if you can’t deposit credits) in their account to use towards the purchase of additional product from your online store.  Run it as a special offer that expires after 10-14 days.  Be sure to highlight all the benefits of the additional products and why they would be complimentary to the products they have already purchased.  Think of it this way.  You buy a cell phone case now you are going to need an additional wall charger and car charger.
You will find that a good majority of the people will come back to use the credit and spend more than what the credit is for, again increasing your customer value.
3.  Follow-Up
There are dozens of techniques to use with following up with new customers.  Welcome calls, text message campaigns, emails, phone blasts etc…
It is important that with your new customers that you don’t stop communicating with them now that you have their money.  Keep building that trust, educate them, help them, and on occasion ask them to buy more stuff from you.
You can sell additional products and you can promote affiliate products but the point is to keep on the front of their mind and use the philosophy of “give, give, take”.  Meaning give value, give more value, then ask for the sale.
You might just be surprised at how much of an increase you can get in your customer value with a well executed followup campaign.
BONUS TIP:
It may sound silly but one of the best ways to increase your customer value is to simply raise your prices.  A.G. Lafley, CEO of Proctor and Gamble said that there are only two ways to win, price or service.
You might just be surprised at how much more your customers will pay for your product or service if you know the value is worth the price.  It is just as easy to sell a $5000 product as it is to sell a $100 product, takes the same steps.  When testing prices, test a broad range.  Don’t just test $10 and $12.  Test $10 vs. $100.  Get the idea?
If you sell 100 units per day at $100 and you raise your price to even $110.  That is an extra $1000 per day in revenue.
These are just a few ideas on how to increase your customer value.  As always be sure to test and let the numbers do the talking, don’t assume because it has worked for others it will work equally for you.